Men’s Tennis Concludes Fall Schedule at Big Ten Indoor Championships

Spartans begin spring season on Jan. 13

EAST LANSING, Mich. -
Michigan State men’s tennis wrapped up the fall season by hosting Big Ten Indoor Championships from October 27-30.

“I felt like we were competitive in every match against some quality opponents,” Michigan State head coach Gene Orlando said. “We won our fair share, but at the end of the day we would have liked to have won some of the three-setters that we let slip away. The positive is that we were right there in every single match, and a year ago at this time we were struggling to stay competitive.”

On the first day of competition, the Spartans competed in the Doubles Championship. Senior Jasper Koenen and freshman Josh Winkler teamed up to defeat Ohio State’s Riley Reist and Joe Thomas, 8-5. In the next round, Koenen and Winkler fell to the eventual Doubles champions, Harry Brown and Davis Crocker from Michigan, 8-3.

Junior Colin Harvey and freshman John Carlin took a bye in the first round of doubles, but fell to Jason Seidman and AJ Joshi of Northwestern, 8-5, in the second round. Junior Billy Shisler and freshman Josh Mukherjee paired up to take on Hunter Tubert and Matt Mendez of Ohio State after a first-round bye, falling 8-4.

Junior Alex Kim and freshman Davis Wong took down the hybrid team of Chris Kuhnle of Penn State and Jason Kerst from Iowa, 8-5. In the next round, the pair fell to Nick Brookes and Antonioni Fasano of Northwestern, 8-3.

Singles competition took place in the remaining three days. Carlin saw the longest Spartan run in the main draw, advancing to the Round of 16 after a first round bye and a 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 defeat over Penn State’s Ben Lieb. Carlin fell in his next match, 6-3 6-3, to Chris Ephron of Northwestern.

Shisler took both his main draw matches to three sets, grinding out a win in his first match against Brown (Michigan) 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(5), but dropping to Brandon Lam (Indiana) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. Kim advanced to the Round of 32 after a walkover in his first match with Zach Lieb (Penn State), but fell to Joe Tyler from Iowa in another three-setter for the Green and White, 6-1, 3-6, 6-1.

Wong defeated Johannes Abrahamsen from Northwestern in the first round, 6-0 6-3, but fell to Kareem Allaf from Iowa in the next match, 6-3 7-6(3). After a first round bye, Winkler dropped to Alex Kobelt from Ohio State in three, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3. Mukherjee took down Indiana’s Zac Brodney in a tie break the first round, 7-5 7-6(5), but was defeated by Michigan’s Crocker in three sets, 6-3 6-7(2), 6-3.

“It was great to see the growth that we’ve had in the last two and a half months, and see them all come together in this tournament,” Orlando said. “I’m excited. I know that there’s a lot of work ahead of us. The competition is going to be very strong.”

Michigan State picks up spring competition on January 13 against UIC in East Lansing, Michigan.